Mark Conrad, director of the sports business program at the Gabelli School of Business, tells Forbes that getting creative could be the key to retaining college athletes in the era of NIL and more lax transfer rules.
Across NCAA Division I men’s basketball, more than 2,500 players entered the transfer portal in 2025, according to college basketball recruitment website VerbalCommits.com, nearly triple the 957 that did so in 2019, a year after the new transfer system was introduced.
“Because players can leave and go to other schools, how do you keep them happy?” says Mark Conrad, director of the sports business program at Fordham University. “You can’t sign them to long-term contracts, yet you want them to stay.”
One strategy might be to keep around a professional athlete like [Trae] Young, a four-time NBA All-Star who was the league’s fifth overall draft pick in 2018. He could help Oklahoma identify talent, mentor young players and balance the egos that come with uneven compensation in a locker room, Conrad contends. Young could also assist with creating a culture of retaining athletes—even if that might be a bit ironic for a player who spent a single season in college, in 2017-18, before turning pro.
